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crown' are the martial arts which playa hugely important role in keeping their tradi tions alive - however, by no means are these fighting arts obsolete or useless. For those who have the eyes to see, Minangkabau fighting arts are a sophisticated method of close combat - you just need to have the right keys to unlock them and train in the right way in order to bring out all of the necessary attributes and responses. There have been a number of known exponents of the Minangkabau fighting arts, probably industrialisation .. The human group that I am referring to are high in the mountain forests of the diverse equatorial island, Sumatra. However, there also exists another endangered species there - humans in this instance - that, ever so-slowly are losing their culture and identity the Minangkabau - a fiercely proud tribe who live scattered predominantly around the west of the island , with one of their main centres being the highland town of Bukkitinggi. Their culture is colourful and diverse - full of ceremonies, festivals and the best known among them in the UK is Guru Richard DeBordes, who has done so much good work over the years to promote Harimau Silat (Silek in Sumatran), one of the major styles from the region. There are also many little known teachers of these rare In donesian combat methods, and it was one such teacher, who not only teaches Minang

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travelling to different areas of this huge archipelago country, funding his travels by singing on buses with his guitar. He met many teachers and was exposed to many styles, coming to the conclusion that all Silat styles - certainly the older ones - probably came from one original, linked in as far back as Alexander the Great. Ed learnt well over ten different styles and discovered these often, originally, had four foundational movements and never had names - they came later on, being influenced or named according to areas these old teachers lived in, such as Cimande , which is a place, or Monyet, which is the monkey. It was often as simple a case as styles having names or dif ferent jurus or movements because having an original aliran (style) was a good way to open a padepokan (school) and make extra money - nothing at all very mystical when you see it from a logical pOint of view! Too often nowadays we hear of this or that 'se cret juru' when in fact there really aren't any. [And for those who tell you there are, they are lying and trying to rip you off!] Move ment is movement and there is nothing secret about it, and Ed found this out. He called his style Silek Tuo (Old Silat) as many teachers from Minang do because the true meaning of it was in line with the original Si lat styles - as I have said , names came later on, and evolved into different specialities, whether ground fighting, striking etc .. . Silek Tuo is a martial art system or philoso phy, more than a particular style, that called to answer the challenge of nature - in other words to cause you to respond whatever the given situation - so it is quite possible that it

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could look somewhat different each time it was used. Guru Ed often says that if he has five students, for example, they will all move differently because it is dependent on their body structure, intelligence and understand ing. In the way Ed teaches his Silek Tuo he focuses on the real root basics of evasion and counter, because he says everyone has that instinct to defend, to attack and to be safe. Once you have learnt the basic gelek or twisting motion, which is both evasion and attack and then the induak, which is a four movement sequence that again has both attack and defence components, it is then up to the individual to train it often and develop their own style because, as Ed says, "everyone can be a master." This process takes a lot of time and effort howev er, and later on during the students' journey, there would be training performed in dark places in order to heighten and develop the senses and instinct as well as training on slippery surfaces to develop balance, sensitivity and proprioception . In days of old this slippery training would be performed on rocks in rivers but there were often too many head injuries and broken bones, so Ed himself uses a washing detergent on the floor to get the desired effect. The more I speak to Ed the more I can understand Silek Tuo does have structure yet is free from real restrictions, giving you the ability to do what is natural for you because, let's be honest,

a sixteen stone man has no real reason to drop down into a traditional depok or sem pok posture - if they want to have healthy knees that is - whereas for a nine stone Indonesian man who has hyper-mobility of the lower back as well as being used to squalling in the traditional jonkok posture, these low postures are nothing! The focus of Silek Tuo training is always on movement and thought as one, as the ideal because, in that mOlllent of confrontation there should be no thought of movement - it should automatically be there and the right tools should be expressed based on instinct and reaction. Interestingly, there are no set jurus in Silek Tuo yet it is perfectly okay to develop them for yourself if that helps you to progress. Guru Ed has also said that observing nature, especially animal charac teristics, is a great way to also develop your own style and this is exactly what so many of the masters of old did ... They were no different to us today, except they perhaps had more time to observe nature and draw inspiration from it. There seems to be so much mysticism surrounding martial arts, and especially Silat - shrouded in occult, in religion and in secrecy. I won't deny the fact that these things exist and are in fact deeply entwined within a lot of these styles, however, when

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